The present invention is directed to the field of centrifugation and, more particularly, is directed to air driven centrifuge rotors designed to hold the centrifuge tubes in a horizontal position for centrifugation.
The existing rotors used in air driven centrifuges are relatively small and do not provide for the orientation of the centrifuge tube in the horizontal position during centrifugation. The tubes in the presently existing air driven centrifuges have the tubes oriented at some acute angle with respect to the spin axis of the rotor. However, in order to provide a more desirable centrifugation path for separation of the constituents of a fluid sample during centrifugation, it is necessary to have the longitudinal axis of the tube be oriented perpendicular to the spin axis of the rotor during centrifugation.
Because air driven centrifuge rotors are relatively small, being one and one half (1.5) inches in diameter, and because the air drive centrifuges are small, limitations exist with respect to how large in size an air driven centrifuge rotor can be and still operate properly in a centrifuge having limited space. Although it would be extremely desirable to have an air driven centrifuge rotor with horizontally oriented tubes during centrifugation, the space requirements in an air driven centrifuge have prevented utilization of such a rotor. Typically, if the rotor is larger than the rotor seat area, the flow of the air exiting between the rotor and the rotor seat will be constrained or restricted to the extent that the operation of the rotor would be unstable. Consequently, it has been felt that the only way possible to provide an air driven rotor of significant size to permit the horizontal orientation of the tubes would be to build a completely new centrifuge having a large enough rotor seat to accommodate the larger rotor.
However, one goal of centrifuge designs is to use the same centrifuge machine to accommodate a variety of functions by the use of interchangeable rotors. In the air drive centrifuge a desire exists to have a swinging tube rotor, but the centrifuge size and the small tubes have made such a design impractical.